European Stocks Slip In Early Deals, Placing Tech Under Pressure

In the wake of the tighter monetary policies that were triggered by a bruising sell-off in global equities last week, European shares slipped in early deals on Monday, signalling an early year loss.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was recorded to have slipped 0.4% by 0814 GMT, placing Asian stocks under pressure with investors bracing for a bellicose update from the Federal Reserve this week. [MKTS/GLOB].

There were also concerns about a possible Russian attack on Ukraine by market participants with the U.S. State Department pulling out family members of its embassy staff in Kyiv.

After growth stocks were knocked by the prospects of rising rates last week, Tech stocks fell by 12 percent, hitting fresh 14-weeks lows.

Individual stocks though do have bright spots, as sources intimated news agency, Reuters that the stocks of automobile manufacturer, Renault jumped to a fair 3.8 percent, with French carmaker, Japan’s Nissan Motor Co and Mitsubishi Motors Corp planning on tripling their investment to jointly develop electric vehicles.

With reports highlighting how Trian Partners, Nelson Peltz’s activist hedge fund built a stake in the consumer in Unilever, the consumer goods company stocks rose by 4.6 percent, helping limit losses in UK’s blue-chip FTSE 100.

The telecommunications sector on the other hand got a major as England based telcom giant, Vodafone rallied 4 percent after Reuters had reported that the company and Iliad were in talks to strike a deal in Italy that would help combine their respective businesses.